An Eclectic Journal of Opinion, History, Poetry and General Bloviating

Monday, October 19, 2015

The Confederate Cavalry Raid on Vermont

Frank Leslie's Illustrated published a series of engraving detailing every step of the Confederate raid on Saint Albans based on photo graphs of the town and sketches of actual townsmen. The teller at the Saint Albans bank was told, “Not a word. We are Confederate Soldiers detailed from General Early’s
Army to come North and to rob and plunder as your soldiers were doing in
the Shenandoah Valley.”

Compared
to the industrial scale horror of
many of the battle fields of the Civil War, it was a trifle.Hardly even a skirmish—one dead on each side, a handful of injuries,
one shed burned, and a few locals thrown into a panic.Indeed outside of the Green
Mountain state where it is something of a big deal, it has been relegated to a mere footnote in the central epic
of American history.

But
I guess the actual invasion of Vermont by Confederate cavalry on October 18, 1864 merits a few spilled electrons here.

By
October of 1864 things looked grim for the Rebels.Robert E. Lee’s increasingly bedraggled Army of Northern Virginia was losing a war of attrition but was putting up a desperate resistance behind the earthen work defenses to Petersburg, gateway to Richmond itself.Sherman was cutting loose from recently
fallen Atlanta and making his March to the Sea.The West
had been cut off for more than a
year since the fall of Vicksburg and
total Union control of the Mississippi.Most important Confederate ports had either already fallen were effectively blockaded.The
Southern economy was in shambles,
its limited industrial capacity
largely smashed, and her people exhausted.Yet they fought on, desperate for a miracle.

In
such a situation President Jefferson
Davis was eager to try anything,
no matter how outlandish and desperate.His attention turned to Canada where Confederate agents
swarmed concocting fantastic plots the
main aim of which was to exploit Northern
war weariness and somehow defeat Abraham
Lincoln in the November election
and replace him with a peace Democrat who
would negotiatean end to the war.

To
that end they had been advising and arming a small number of radical Copperheads, nominally led by Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham
and his political organization The Sons
of Liberty.Most of the Sons were
simply anti-war, but I minority did hatch some plots with the aid those
Canadian agents—attempts to stir an
uprising in Chicago coincidental
to the Democratic Party Convention there.The plot had been exposed, and Republican propagandists
made a field day of exaggerating the threat and denouncing
copperhead treason.Vallandigham himself was deported to
Canada.

Meanwhile
other plots included a plan to seize the only Navy Gunboat on Lake Eerie,
the U.S.S
Michigan which was guarding
a sizable prisoner of war camp on Johnson’s Island.Armed agents seized a steamboat and
planned to intercept the Michigan whose officers were supposed to be drugged
by saboteurs.That plot also was exposed and the rebels had
to high tail it to Canadian shores
on their commandeered boat.

Lt. Bennett Young planned and led the raid.

So
it was not surprising that Davis eagerly accepted a plan laid out to him by a
young cavalryman.Bennett H. Young was the teen age son of a Kentucky aristocrat when he had enlisted in the 8th Kentucky Cavalry.He was only 20 when he was captured in Ohio
during General John Hunt Morgan’s raid deep
into Yankee territory.After a short
time as a prisoner of war, he escaped
and made his way to Canada.From there
he went all the way to Halifax, Nova
Scotia where he booked passage to Bermuda
and from there back south on a blockade
runner.During the daring do of these adventures, he eventually laid
out his plans to President Davis.

He
proposed to return to Canada and once there recruit a force from the large numbers of escaped POW’s there, then
stage a raid on a fat and under protected U.S. border
town.The immediate objective would be to rob banks and secure desperately needed specie—hard currency in the form of gold.The raid would also
perhaps force the Union government to divert
troops from the southern fronts to protect the exposed northern frontier.It might
be enough of a blow to Northern moral
to help tip the November election to George
McClelland and the Democrats.

Perhaps
the wildest hope was that the raid
would provoke an over-reaction and a
hot pursuit of the raiders across
the border causing an international
incident.With luck it might even
blow up into something that would finally bring British intervention into the Civil
War either on the side of the South
or as a neutral peace keeper which
would separate the forces and recognize the South—a long cherished
Confederate dream.

Davis
was sold.He commissioned Young a lieutenant, provided a small purse to help finance his plan
and sent him back to Canada with order to meet up with Confederate agents
there.Returning north by the same
perilous route, Young was soon enough busy recruiting his force.

Eventually
he gathered 21 other young adventurers, most of them, like himself, cavalrymen,
the others expert horsemen.After a brief period of training, they began to slip across the porous and undefended border by ones and twos, most by train.

Their
objective was the prosperous rail
junction town of St. Albans fifteen
miles from the border.It major
attraction was three fat banks
clustered near the center of
town.

The Saint Alban's Bank, right, was one of three that were robbed during the raid.

On
October 10, Young and one companion
checked into a local hotel
explaining their long guns by claiming to be on a hunting trip from St.
John’s.Over the next few days the
others arrived with similar stories.Although it is a mystery to
me how so many armed young men, many of whom had to have obviously Southern accents could come into a
small town without arising at least some
suspicion.But then St. Albans was
far from the war, and perhaps only its sons
and husbands in the Union service
had ever heard a Southerner speak.

As
his troops assembled, Young spent
time scouting the surrounding area
and all possible roads in and out of
town in all directions under the cover of hunting trips.The handsome and charming young man also
found time to dally with the affections of a local belle and was
even welcomed into the home of Governor
J. Gregory Smith and given a tour by his wife, Anna

Finally,
all was in place.About 3 pm October 19,
Young strode the steps of the American
Hotel, drew his pistol and
announced the astonished men gathered there “I take possession of this town in
the name of the Confederate States of America. Anyone resisting will be shot.”By coincidence he had the good fortune of
picking a day when the local Sherriff
and as many as 50 other leading local
citizens were attending court at the county
seat and Gov. Smith was attending state business in Montpelier.The men most likely to organize an effective
resistance were gone.

Young
and a handful of cohorts began to round up citizens on the streets and herd
them onto the village green.When the local church bells sounded 3 pm teams of two or three burst
simultaneously into the town’s three banks—the St. Albans Bank, Franklin
County Bank, and First National Bank
of St. Albans—clustered together conveniently enough on Bank Street.In each case employees were pistol
whipped or threatened and chaotic searches were conducted for
cash.In each case substantial amounts were not found, left behind or, and lost in
the excitement.

The
robbers found little hard currency
and in one case decided that a bag of
silver dollars was too heavy to
carry. Very little gold was taken, but they loaded up on bank notes, green backs,
and government bonds.

Meanwhile
as Young held the terrified locals at gun point, other men rounded up and saddled
horses from the local livery stable
and from the streets.

Several
shots were fired in the bank
robberies and as Young and his men menaced the town.There were several tussles and a few locals managed to get a hold of weapons and fire,
mostly ineffectively, at the
raiders.One local man was killed, and another wounded by
gunfire.Two raiders were shot, one of whom later died of his
wounds.

Meanwhile,
despite the best efforts isolate the
center of town, word was getting out that a raid was taking place and men
started to arm themselves and prepare to attack the raiders.

Young
planned to set fire to the town,
reportedly as revenge for General Philip
Sheridan’s devastating raid in the Shenandoah
Valley and as a diversion to
keep townspeople too busy putting out the flames to pursue them.To this end the raiders had equipped themselves with four inch glass vials of Greek Fire that were supposed to burst into flames when broken
and exposed to the air.Vials were thrown at the American house and
several other businesses, but only a shed ignited
and it was quickly extinguished.

Young
was overheard to order one of his
men to go to Governor Smith’s home and burn it.A boy slipped away from the crowd and ran to inform Mrs. Smith that the
raiders were coming.She quickly rummaged
through the house and found an old horse
pistol.Unfortunately it was
unloaded and she did not find any ammunition.Gamely she hauled the heavy weapon out and
took a position in her doorway awaiting the arrival of the Rebels.Her heart was beating when she heard hoof
beats.

Overalls and Aprons--These Saint Albans working men were among those that organized a hasty resistance to the raider and joined two posses that set out in pursuit of the raiders.

Fortunately
the horse was ridden by Captain George
Conger, a recently dischargedUnion cavalryman who was organizing a posse.He left
some men behind to guard the governor’s home and then headed to town.Eventually he gathered a posse of 50 men and F. Stewart Stranahan and John W. Newton gathered another
50.Both groups began to close in on the
village center.

Realizing
that he was pressed and outnumbered, Young had to abandon plans
to proceed to two other nearby towns
to rob their banks.He and his men hightailed it out of town not too much
in advance of the posses.In the
confusion more bank loot spilled from the raiders’ bags.

Here
his planning and knowledge of the roads paid off the men split up and then
split again.All gained the Canadian
border safely, including the two wounded men, one of who would soon die.

Once
in Canada it did not take long for local authorities, warned by telegraph to find and round up
raiders.All who actually went on the
raid were in custody within 24 hours, although co-conspirators and Confederate agents in Canada were not nabbed.

Canadian
authorities were in a quandary about
what to do with the men.At the State Department William S. Seward issued
blustery demands for their return,
calling the men common criminals.Young and his men demanded to be treated as combatants
of war and thus beyond extradition
and criminal punishment.As predicted the incident did blow up into an
incident that threatened US-British relations.Canadian authorities finally decided that their neutrality prevented them from turning the men over.They did however return all of the money they
recovered—about $88,000 of the estimated $200,000 stolen.Some of the rest of the money was recovered
in St. Albans and along the trail of the fleeing raiders.

Five of the raiders, including Lt. Young were photographed in Canada while awaiting trial. They had pieced together some semblance of uniforms to emphasize that they were soldiers on a mission approved by the President to the Confederacy and not common criminals. But in the raid they had been in Mufti and if the Americans could get them extradited they would be tried and spies and most likely hung.

While
in custody the raiders were treated
as celebrities.They posed
for photographs in and out of their jail
cells.Papers both North and South
were filled with breathless accounts
of their escapades.Illustrated stories splashed across the pages
of weeklies like Harper’sand Frank Leslie’s.

But
the publicity failed to dishearten the
public, who were beginning to get used to Union victories in the
field.A few troops were indeed
dispatched to protect the border, but the Union had plenty to spare.Another Canadian based plot to stage an election day uprising in New York City
was revealed and squelched when General Ben Butler arrived in the city
with several thousand troops.The election went off without a hitch.Lincoln, of course, was re-elected.

The
South, however, was cheered by the
heroics.President Davis promoted
Young to Brigadier General as he sat
in his jail cell.

Eventually
all the men were released.After the war
Young was specifically excluded from
the General Amnesty offered
Confederate troops.He could not go
safely home again until 1868.He studied law while in exile and back
home opened up a prosperous law practice.He was widely celebrated as a hero and gained both wealth and
prestige.He became noted for his philanthropy including founding the
first orphanage for Black children in Louisville, a school for theblind, and much pro bono work for the poor. He became President of the Louisville Southern Railroad, a memoirist, and National Commander of the United Confederate Veterans.He died in 1919 at the age of 66.

Only
one of the three robbed banks still
stands.And it is still a bank
building.But after many mergers and
changes of hands it is, somewhat ironically, a branch of a major Canadian bank.

Tailored
made as an adventure yarn, the St. Alban’s raid has been the subject of novels and of the 1954 film The
Raid starring Van Heflin,
Richard Boone, Anne Bancroft, and Lee
Marvin.As you might suspect, the
film was only loosely tethered to
the facts.

The
state of Vermont has heavily promoted
the story of the St. Albans Raid.The
state has found that Civil War buffs
nicely supplement the annual pilgrimages of leaf peepers to the state.